Non-Matching Vet Bring Back K98k Rifles, How and Why?

[LizardKing]

i don't think so...

[NDShooter]

I've got a bring back thats not matching but its missing the rear trigger guard screw and nothing else will fit it, ordered over 6 replacements. Just doesn't fit. Looks as if it wasn't machined quite right, the trigger guard that is.

[3986QMTC]

A late uncle in a transportation outfit was occasionally tasked with moving surrendered/captured German ordnance, and he did make some comments germane to this thread. I can't quote him verbatim after 40+ years have gone by, but he did particularly mention the removal of 98K bolts by German personnel, not only prior to surrendering, but also if weapons were about to be left behind during a withdrawl. He said that you could often tell the enemy was really being pressed hard if they hadn't taken the time to make weapons inoperable or take axes to vehicle radiators, etc.

As for damaged 98K stocks, he and another uncle (who was a combat infantryman) both commented that at different times, swinging a 98K by the barrel against a tree or some stonework was considered a cheap form of life insurance... if not your life, possibly someone else's.

The rifles were almost as common as mud at the time, and there eventually were good-sized rear-echelon storage areas stuffed to the rafters with them, but they were a clumsy and potentially self-incriminating thing for a line soldier to lug around. After a certain point, a lot of the better ones were no longer just laying around for the taking, but an enterprising person could still cobble up a decent specimen out of what was available. My uncle did bring home a late-1930's 98K with a mismatched bolt, a missing cleaning rod section, and - naturally - a laminated stock with a hairline crack at the top of the wrist. I had it for a number of years, and while no thing of beauty, it shot very well with the relatively low pressure, soft-pointed 8x57 hunting ammunition available in the US in the 1970's. I sold it during a bad case of the "shorts" and have regretted it ever since.

Best regards,

G. Kelly

[timothy]

Same thing dad said they would whack them against a tree to break the stock and throw the bolts out he always said this was a lot harder to do with the "Schmisser" I have read and I really think it that a lot of the K98 left the factory especially late in the war all mismatched. I have a friend that has a 1945 date and nothing matches on it. I have had them matched from mail order and mis matched from vets and all the way around I really don't think the German really cared either. Same thing can be found with the majority of 84/98 bayonets course everyone wants them matching if possible I watched some surrender footage the other day and the bayonets were lying in a pile removed from thier scabbards and frogs. timothy